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Jame Gumb
'Jame Gumb '(known as "Buffalo Bill") is the primary antagonist in Thomas Harris' novel 1988 The Silence of the Lambs and the Oscar winning acclaimed 1991 film adaption. He was portrayed by actor Ted Levine in the film adaption and was a former client of the book and film's supporting antagonist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, during the time when he was a renowned psychiatrist. Jame Gumb was a serial killer, who murdered overweight women and skinned them to produce a "woman suit" for himself to wear, as he wished to be a woman. He was killed ultimately by FBI Agent Clarice Starling, who was aided in finding him by his former psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter. The Life and Death of Billy Jame Gumb was born in California in 1949, and was abandoned at birth by his mother. His mother was an alcoholic prostitute, who had named him James Gumb, but upon signing his birth certificate incorrectly, spelled the name James, and it was left signed as Jame Gumb. He was abandoned at age two and placed into foster care, where he was severely abused by his foster parents. He lived from foster home to foster home until age 10, after which he was adopted by his grandparents, whom became his first victims, when he murdered them impulsively at age 12. He was then sent to Tulare Vocational Rehabilitation, a psychiatric hospital, where he was taught how to be a tailor. After checking out of Tulare, he began working in a Baltimore Curio store, where he met and began a relationship with worker, Benjamin Raspail. Raspail then ended his relationship with Gumb, in favor of a transvetite named Klaus, who Gumb later murdered and flayed. He had taken Klaus' decapitated head and placed it within a jar full of dirty water, which he then stashed within a car in an impound warehouse. Gumb had then, over a period of time following the murder of his ex-lover's boyfriend, began applications for gender reassignment surgery. However, all of his applications were declined, as he was deemed too psychologically disturbed. Because of his inability to acquire gender reassignment surgery, he began to see psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who learned all about him. Eventually after Gumb had finished consulting with Dr. Lecter, he started up as a tailor in Belvedere, Ohio, where he came to meet an overweight woman, Fredrica Bimmel, whose skin struck his attention. Gumb had then conceived the idea that if he could not by legal means acquire being another gender, he could make himself into a woman through fashioning together a woman suit. He had then set up to take over a property in the town with a large underbasement area, where he could stash his victims, starting with Bimmel. Fortunately, in stalking Bimmel, Gumb came to discover that Bimmel's employer, Mrs. Lippman, who was a local, propieted a house with an old basement that containedmany rooms and a large dry well which used to be above the surface, when there wasn't a house present at her property. He then came to Mrs. Lippman's and, after being welcomed into her home, murdered her and stashed her body in an old bathtub in one of the labryinth-like rooms in the basement of the house, which he filled with dirty water. He then set up in the house and took over the property paying the bills. He developed an obsession with moths and butterflies, and he began to breed and keep them in a certain room in the basement area. He then abducted Bimmel and, eventually, came to murder her via gunshot. He had withdrawn Bimmel's skin with surgical tools and then weighed her body down a West Virginia river, so as to ensure she wouldn't be found first among his victims. He then proceeded to abduct four other women and, like Bimmel, kept them entrapped in the large dry well in the basement of Mrs. Lippman's home, making them clean their skin with lotion before he would eventually come to kill them. He then skinned them and added them to his woman suit and disposed of their bodies in lakes. Two of the following four victims after Bimmel were found before her, marking her as the third victim, despite her initially being the first. Gumb then gained the press title "Buffalo Bill" as a joke made among Officers, as he liked to skin the humps of his victims, in this case all overweight women, particularly women who were size 14 in clothing. Gumb then came to abduct Senator Ruth Martin's daughter, Catherine. He had posed as a man with a broken left arm who needed help moving a sofa into the back of his van outside her apartment building. Catherine had came to assist him. She was backing into the van with the sofa, when she was asked wether she was a size 14 and was rendered unconsious by Gumb. She was brought to Belvedere, to the Lippman house, where she was imprisoned like the previous victims in the basement dry well. Her abduction by Buffalo Bill was then made national, and her mother made a national televised plea to him to return her daughter and repeatedly used her name in sentences, so as to ensure he would not deem her a mere object, like the other victims, but, rather, see her as a human being. FBI Agent Jack Crawford then assigned rookie Agent Clarice Starling to the case of catching Buffalo Bill before he would strike and Catherine would become his sixth victim. Clarice was assigned to consult with Gumb's former psychiatrist, who through a quid pro quo of information for information, would relinquesh what she needed to catch him before Catherine loses her life. Starling revealed all the personal information about her life and her deepest fears in turn for the clues that would lead to him. Starling discovered Klaus' decapitated head in the vehicle stationed in the storage shed, belonging to a John Grant, an alias of Gumb's. Starling came to determine that Fredrica Bimmel was indeed Bill's first victim and was weighed, so she would be found as a later victim, so the authorities and FBI could not deduce he knew her personally. In Bimmel's mouth, a Death's-Head Hawkmoth was uncovered, which was one among the many moths bred by Gumb.Clarice then eventually came to Belvedere, Ohio, and upon coming to the Bimmel house and speaking to her father, learned about her employer Mrs. Lippman. Clarice then came to learn of a local tailor, Jame Gumb, whose cutting incisions matched perfectly to the skin removal incisions on the Buffalo Bill victims. She came to the Lippman residence and discovered Gumb to be living there and after seeing a Death's-Head Hawkmoth fly out of the kitchen, she realized he was Buffalo Bill and withdrew her weapon. Gumb fled down into the basement area and was pursued by Starling, who found an alive Catherine. Starling came to be locked in the room with the bathtub that contained the remains of Mrs. Lippman, and the lights were then turned off by Gumb, who crept up on Starling by wearing his night vision binoculars and prepared to shoot her in the back of the head, but was killed as Starling heard his gun cock, and returned fire by spinning around, shooting Gumb down, and busting down a wood-barred window, releasing light into the room. The local authorities and misled FBI Agents, led by Crawford, who had travelled to an empty residence in Illinois, came to the Lippman house, and Catherine was rescued from the well. Starling was awarded with honors for the rescue of Catherine Martin and the killing of Jame Gumb. Quotes Jame Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told. Catherine Martin: Mister... my family will pay cash. Whatever ransom you're askin' for, they'll pay it. Jame Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. his dog, Precious Yes, it will, Precious, won't it? It will get the hose! Catherine Martin: Okay... okay... okay. Mister, if you let me go, I won't - I won't press charges I promise. See, my mom is a real important woman... I guess you already know that. Jame Gumb: Now, it places the lotion in the basket. Catherine Martin: Please! Please I wanna go home! I wanna go home please! Jame Gumb: It places the lotion in the basket. Catherine Martin: I wanna see my mommy! Please I wanna see my... Jame Gumb: Put the fucking lotion in the basket! Clarice Starling: Your name is? Jame Gumb: Oh, uh Jack Gordon. Clarice Starling: Mr. Gordon, good, uh... well Frederica used to work for Mrs. Lippman. Did you know her? Jame Gumb: No, nuh-uh. Oh wait... was she a great big fat person? Clarice Starling: Yes, she was a big girl, sir. Jame Gumb: Yeah, I may've... no, I read about her in the newspaper. Um, Mrs. Lippman had a son, though, maybe he could help you. I got his card in here someplace. Do you wanna come in while I look for it? Are you close to catching somebody, you think? Clarice Starling: Yes. We may be. Did you... take over this place after Mrs. Lippman died, is that right? Jame Gumb: Yeah I - I bought this house... two years ago. Clarice Starling: [looking around] Did she leave any records? Any business records, tax forms, lists of employees? Jame Gumb: No, nothin' like that at all. Say, does the FBI learn somethin? The police around here don't seem to have the first clue. [Clarice notices a moth] ... I mean have you got like a description, fingerprints, anything like that? Clarice Starling: No. No, I don't. [Clarice unbuttons her gun holster] Jame Gumb: Oh, here's that number. Clarice Starling: Very good, Mr. Gordon. May I use your phone please? Jame Gumb: [Gumb starts laughing] Sure, you can use my phone. Clarice Starling: [draws her gun] Freeze! Put your hands over your head and turn around! Spread your legs! Spread your legs! Put your hands in the back... thumbs up - FREEZE! [Gumb runs off] Jame Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it's told. Catherine Martin: Please mister, let me go! My family will give you anything you want! Jame Gumb: It rubs the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again. Jame Gumb: [to a mirror] Would you fuck me? I'd fuck me. I'd fuck me hard. I'd fuck me so hard. Jame Gumb: YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT PAIN IS! Category:Characters Category:Film Characters Category:Deceased